Starting Business Credit - Need Advice (2024)

**Concerns**
I seen some people complain of these accounts not reporting, like crown office, summa, shirtsy, etc. I don’t want to keep throwing money away if they won’t report, you just see a lot of people mention these vendors for starter accounts.

Sorry for the long post, I hope you guys can advise me on where to go or what to do from here. Any input is appreciated, even if its just to stay put and take care of what I have for 3 months.

Congrats on starting & growing your business.

You are on the right path building your business credit.

You have a good mix of business credit - how are they being reported on D&B and Experian ?

Have you looked into the new fintech banks that lend based on your business and not on your personal credit ?

Divvy, Brex, Torpago, Corpay, Rho, Jeeves, Kleer, Capital On Tap...

As for your industry (Trucking), I would suggest you check out Josh Van Horn on YT - GetBusinessCredit.

He has the same business as yours and has lots if videos on how to get started in the trucking & transportation logistics business.

I subscribe to his video because he has business credit information for new, startups, and established corporation type businesses.

Sounds like reporting is quite new for you so I'd focus on spend and repayment on the FNBO business card as they report to Business EX as well as D&B. Unlike Amex which reports to SBFE only.

The fintech banks for business credit are a great way to start building business credit as some only rely on EIN / business bank statements while others will do a SP on your personal. Most are charge cards with Net terms but some are revolvers.

Try apping for a Citizen's Bank for Business - they are a SP only approval with minimal business docs. They were my first business revolver.

https://www.citizensbank.com/small-business/business-credit-cards/overview.aspx

Thanks to this forum, I have accumulated starter business credit in 4 months:

• ARCO & Fuelman MC (both Fleetcor):Simple expenses like fuel and mileage was easy to solve with a commercial fleet gas accounts and easy tax deduction compilation.
• FNBO business MC, Amex Amazon Prime business, Barclays Hawaiian Air business WEMC, Citizens Business MC:Revolving business credit helps with business purchases & sales / income delays which gives breathing room.
• Walmart Commercial, Lowes Commercial, Dell webank, Sams Club Business store card:help with consolidated monthly expense management every 30 days.
• Quill, NAV Boost: posts net 30 activity

I am relatively new to the reporting of business credit. Do the credit cards only report quarterly? or monthly as well? Impressive list in only 4 months! How much of that is PG/not PG?

@Anonymouswrote:

I am relatively new to the reporting of business credit. Do the credit cards only report quarterly? or monthly as well? Impressive list in only 4 months! How much of that is PG/not PG?

Have you considered going for the Amazon Net 55?

We have fuelman (Fleetcor) at work and it does good but i aboslu*tely hate the websites and layout, hard to get ahold of anybody that speaks decent english when we do have a problem. But it's not been a bad experince with them at all.

Some banks report monthly, some quarterly, some only with activity (charges).

Yes, I just got the Amazon Net 55 BLOC ($5K SL) from Synchrony - just this week:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Business-Credit/Amazon-Net-55-Commercial-BLOC-5-000-SL-No-PG-No-personal-HP/m-p/6479907

That was a non PG which is rare for a sole-prop structured business...

Other non PG accounts: Fuelman MC, ARCO, Quill, FNBO MC, Lowes, Floor & Decor.

@Anonymouswrote:

So i am guessing you took a few hard pulls for some of the cards/accounts you mentioned? How long has your business been registered? I see the amazon is either 2 years old or PG, but i have heard they will accept businesses less than 2 years no PG, IF, they have established credit already.

Yes, took quite a few HP on my EX (FNBO biz, Walmart Commercial, Dell, Sams) compared to 1 TU HP from Barclays and 1 EQ HP from Citibank (denied).

Amazon Net 55 BLOC was a non PG and did not require a SP or HP at all - never gave them my SSN so it was based only on EIN & business credit.

My sole prop has been in business for over 20 years, but reporting only 10 years.

Very thin business profile as I recently started leveraging business credit.

My goal business credit:

Ford Commercial business lease/loan for the Ford F150 Lightning EV truck:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Business-Credit/Ford-Commercial-Credit-lease-new-2022-Lightning-for-sole/m-p/6437740

@4sallypatwrote:

Sounds like reporting is quite new for you so I'd focus on spend and repayment on the FNBO business card as they report to Business EX as well as D&B. Unlike Amex which reports to SBFE only.

The fintech banks for business credit are a great way to start building business credit as some only rely on EIN / business bank statements while others will do a SP on your personal. Most are charge cards with Net terms but some are revolvers.

Try apping for a Citizen's Bank for Business - they are a SP only approval with minimal business docs. They were my first business revolver.

https://www.citizensbank.com/small-business/business-credit-cards/overview.aspx

Thanks to this forum, I have accumulated starter business credit in 4 months:

• Walmart Commercial, Lowes Commercial, Dell webank, Sams Club Business store card:help with consolidated monthly expense management every 30 days.

Just a side note about the Walmart Commercial Cap1 account...if you're a Sole Proprietor, this account is no longer eligible to be applied for without a PG. I think you got in right before they made that change@4sallypat

If you attempt to apply now, once you select the box that says you're a "sole proprietor", it immediately comes up with the personal guarantor page and you cannot complete the application without filling that information in and taking the personal HP with Capital One.

@Anonymouswrote:

Hey All!

Been checking out the forums for a few months now, trying to learn all I can about business credit and some personal credit, theres so much more to it than I previously thought. So my personal credit is pretty good for a 28 year old (around 760 FICO) and I am considering starting a trucking company this year. So I have began building or attempting to build my business credit since December, so I am new to this. I have been on here, watched hours and hours of youtube, everything from credit suite to credit plug, and done a lot of googling lol!

I would like some advice and have a few questions on how some of this works. So here is my setup for now.

I have a single member LLC registered with my state, KY, since June of ’21. I have my EIN, DUNS, business bank account, and just got my alliance virtual office. My business is not active right now, its just a shell and im prepping it so I hopefully don’t have “as many” issues with funding and buying equipment later down the road.

I currently have for my business:
Amex Business Cash – 10K CL
FNBO – 12K CL
Quill Net 30
Grainger Net 30
Uline Net 30
NAV Business Boost
Crown Office Supplies Net 30 (See concerns)

Where do I need to go next? Anymore starter vendor accounts that everybody recommends? I would like to the Amazon Net 55 but my business is under 2 years so would I have to PG? I read and seen people getting them under 2 years but have some business credit established. I do understand the less PG’s the better, it doesn’t concern me if I HAVE to, but every PG is a hard pull for my personal correct? Same with some of the fleet cards, I would like to get WEX because of fuel and maintenance for my trucks.

How are payment experiences reported? Are they per experience or these vendors report once per month/quarter? Do I need to make multiple purchases through the month or is once per month enough? I feel like I could waste money on stuff I don’t need. What helps is I can get paid back for just about all of this through my work. I can buy stuff for the shop and get my money back no problem.

How should one go about getting more business credit cards? I see people on radical marketer and on here that go for many many cards at once, then I guess they just garden and lay low for a while? Im not sure what the best plan is here, and I know there will be a lot of opinions. See a lot of people on here with hundreds of thousands in business credit lines, its actually very impressive.

**Concerns**
I seen some people complain of these accounts not reporting, like crown office, summa, shirtsy, etc. I don’t want to keep throwing money away if they won’t report, you just see a lot of people mention these vendors for starter accounts.

Sorry for the long post, I hope you guys can advise me on where to go or what to do from here. Any input is appreciated, even if its just to stay put and take care of what I have for 3 months.

@AnonymousCongratulations on the work you've done to get great business credit. Can you provide specifics as to when you obtained those credit cards and accounts? Also, have you asked NAV for a refresh?